Double D: "Should we feel guilty about Jonny's predicament?"
Eddy: "Nah, y'know what they say, a little childhood trauma builds character."
—Double D and Eddy in the ending, just before Jonny rolls into them, setting their jawbreakers loose.
The Ed-Touchables is the original pilot episode for the Ed, Edd n Eddy series, first airing on January 4th, 1999.
The episode establishes the Eds' individual personalities; when The Smart Guy Double D misplaces his magnifying glass (to his despair), and lovably ditzy Ed's bratty baby sister, Sarah, rampages for her misplaced Dolly, the greedy prankster Eddy comes to the conclusion that Double D and Sarah's stuff is the cause of a "Serial Toucher", on the loose, prompting them to warn the entire neighborhood of the thief, while they begin a search for the thief by setting up a trap, where neighborhood Cloudcuckoolander Jonny and his Companion Cube Plank have the misfortune of falling into...
Tropes (YMMV goes here):
- An Aesop:
- You can’t go around accusing people of things without checking the facts and you need enough evidence to prove it.
- Just because your stuff turns up missing, doesn’t mean that someone took it. Maybe you just misplaced it.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Sarah.
- Butt-Monkey: Jonny. He is falsely accused by the Eds of stealing people’s stuff, then after being captured by them, they torture him by making him need to go the bathroom until he wrongfully confessed. After he is stuffed into a tire and made to roll around the Cul-De-Sac as punishment, and despite being proven innocent, Jonny is still left to roll in the tire. Finally, Sarah uses him to get back at the Eds by sending rolling down a hill towards the Eds.
- Cassandra Truth: Jonny claiming he isn't the toucher.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Jonny getting stuffed inside a tire and set rolling around the Cul-De-Sac for his "crimes."
- Deadpan Snarker: Sarah when Double D tells her someone has touched his stuff as well.
- Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction: Edd hears the doorbell and answers the door, but no one is there. He walks back to his room, but the doorbell rings again. Edd opens the door again, and again there is no one there. After testing the doorbell, he closes the door, but the bell rings again. This time, a bucket falls on him. The bell rings again, and then he gets hit with a fish. When the bell rings one last time, Edd answers and it's Eddy. Edd asks if Eddy was the one ringing the doorbell; he denies it, but he's clearly being sarcastic.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Double D is implied to have a crush on Sarah. Later in the series, starting with "An Ed Too Many", the crush would be reversed.
- Edd is noticeably more fun-loving and casual, joining in Ed and Eddy's dogpile, than his later, more conservative self. He also has a much softer voice.
- Not only is this one of the only times the Eds get jawbreakers in the end, but they do so despite doing something wrong. Future episodes show them being denied jawbreakers despite deserving them.
- Said jawbreakers are said to cost a nickel (¢5) while later episodes have them cost a quarter (¢25). It's also one of the only instances where they actually get their desired jawbreakers.
- Eddy calling Edd "Edd" and not "Double D" (though this is likely just to ensure the audience understands the pun).
- Ed being noticeably more intelligent than what he is for the rest of the series. He's also willing to be more hostile than his usual carefree self when the three of them interrogate Jonny.
- Sarah sympathizing with Jonny for getting punished for something he didn't do, as well as getting back at the Eds for Jonny's sake. The rest of the series has Sarah devoid of any kindness or goodwill towards Jonny, treating him almost as badly as she does the Eds.
- Nazz is about the same height as Rolf in this episode. In all future appearances, she's depicted as being the same height as the shorter kids like Sarah and Jimmy.
- Jimmy's voice is much deeper, and Ed's is softer and raspier.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- The way the Eds are introduced already establish some aspect of their personality. Edd is labeling everything in his bedroom, establishing him as a heavily organized Neat Freak; Eddy plays Ding Dong Ditch with Edd, pegging him as the troublemaker of the group; and Ed is watching a B-movie on TV with a dumb look on his face.
- Sarah's introduction involves her kicking open Ed's door and screaming in his face inquiring where her doll is.
- Kevin makes his debut voicing skepticism at Eddy's announcement that he and the other two will capture the serial toucher, marking him as the one most opposed to the Ed's and whatever it is they're up to. The other kids agreeing with him immediately show his influence over them too.
- The chase scene does a good job at introducing the Eds respective personalities. When they pass a fence, Eddy immediately jumps over it despite there being a door, showing he's a headstrong leader but prone to tunnel vision. Double D uses the door, but closes it behind him, showing he's rational, but fastidious to an inconvenient degree. Ed jumps face-first into a hand-sized hole in the fence and spins through it like it were a drain, showing he's a major Cloudcuckoolander with occasional Achievements in Ignorance.
- Establishing Series Moment: The last line of the episode is Eddy musing how "A little childhood trauma builds character," letting the viewer know right away just how much of the show's humor comes from horrible things happening to people who may or may not deserve it.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Double D feeling violated when he thinks his magnifying glass is stolen. Also, Sarah going mad over misplacing her doll.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Eddy calms down a hyperventilating Edd by slamming his bed right on top of him.Edd: Thank you, I needed that.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted. Despite finding out after the fact that Jonny was innocent, the Eds still get their jawbreakers. Then they quickly lose them when Jonny, who'd been sent rolling through down inside a tire and bowls them over, causing them to spit their jawbreakers out.
- Medium Blending: The movie playing on Ed's TV is some sort of B-Movie puppet film.
- Misery Builds Character: Eddy dismisses what they did to Jonny by saying that "a little childhood trauma builds character."
- Neat Freak: Double D is immediately established by this, first by forbidding Eddy to wear his shoes in his room, personally cleaning Eddy with a vacuum, and getting agitated when Eddy jumps on his bed.
- Never My Fault: The whole investigation is started because neither Double D or Sarah are willing to admit they may have just misplaced their belongings. Double D at least has the decency to feel guilty when he realises, though Sarah, expectedly, pins everything bad that happened to Jonny on the Eds.
- Potty Emergency: Eddy interrogates Jonny by letting water from a squirt gun drip onto Plank to make him swell up. It ends up making Jonny need to pee.
- Shout-Out: The title is a play on The Untouchables
- Tempting Fate: "A little childhood trauma builds character."
- The Voiceless: Nazz and Rolf don't speak in this episode.
